Aged but not deceased

I have just discovered ChatGPT, it’s amazing! Just ask it a question and you get a concise well written answer. It’s AI (artificial intelligence) and sometimes makes mistakes but if it can’t find the answer it says so. Cool site.

Go Leafs!

Well, that’s that, and then there’s this:

Just a small sample of how large corporations are ripping us off. If I did this I would be in jail quicker than quick. Remember the guy who bought up all the hand sanitizer from Costco? I defiantly don’t agree with what he did but if he was a large corporation he would have gotten away with it.

And this:

Rosalie has turned her hand lately to cooking as a hobby. I enjoy her dishes and her enthusiasm. I have also learned all sorts of ways of telling her I don’t like a particular dish without actually saying I don’t like it. Any new skill is a good skill.

One of the off-shoots is that she has started making different flavours of margarita. So far she has tried mango and papaya. I love them both but can’t make up my mind which I like best so she has to keep making them until I can finally decide.

Also this

Our rent was due to be paid so we went to the Intercam bank to withdraw some pesos from our account. We walked in, took a number and were seventh in line. Now, in a Canadian bank that means a five minute wait. This however, is Mexico.

Our second stop was Barra so we decided to go there first to buy some plants but the place was closed for some reason. So back to the bank again and continue standing in line. We still had our original number but still had to wait forty five minutes before getting served. Total time from when we first walked into the bank was an hour and twenty minutes.

There are three tellers but only one was open. The tellers not only deal with customers but also members of the staff who come up and speak to them regularly.

It was exhausting!

Once the money was in my wallet it had to go to the BanaMex bank to pay the rent. It was getting too late that day as we were expecting visitors so the plan was to go back the next day during siesta time when most Mexicans are off eating their lunch.

The way to pay the rent, is to have a photo of our landlords credit card and present it to the teller. They then take our cash money and give us a receipt which we take a photo of and send to the landlord via email. It works well especially as BanaMex has a bit more efficient way of dealing with clients. The whole thing this time took about five minutes.

Go Leafs! Oh, for the non North Americans, the Toronto Maple Leafs are my favourite ice hockey team and are doing great right now. I take a lot of abuse because I’m a fan of an eastern Canadian team so folks like to rub it in a bit.

Again, Go Leafs!

We wanted to brighten up the yard by adding a few more plants. As it happened, friends of ours, Dan and Linda, were thinning out their garden and donated a whole bunch of beautiful plants to us.

I happened to ask how they grew banana plants. We now have two plants to find out for ourselves. Apparently, all you have to do is dig a small hole, stick the plant (about a foot tall) into it, water it a bit and wait. Apparently, when we come back next fall, we will be able to eat the fruit.

Because of this, I have been digging holes and planting like a madman. They gave us so much stuff that I had trouble finding places to put it. I’m concerned about the soil as it seems to be mostly sand and small gravel. I was told to dig and plant so that’s what I did. I had to take the attitude that if it comes up, it does and if it doesn’t, too bad.

When I first planted them, most were very droopy and sad looking but after a few days some were showing signs of recovery so I live in hope.

I started to relax and then they said they had a lime tree for us. I had to dig a good sized hole which was fairly easy once I had watered the ground a bit. The soil is still very sandy and gravely so I had to do something about that.

Dan and Linda told us of a place just outside of Barra where we could get some peat moss. We found the place fine and after some language problems found what we were looking for. It wasn’t peat moss as we know it. I think it was more likely coconut husks which will work just as well. We also bought an aloe vera plant with several babies. The whole thing cost 100 pesos, about $7 CDN.

When we went to get the lime tree they also had a lot of good garden soil for us so I got a couple of five gallon buckets of that too.

Digging up the tree was a bit of an ordeal as it is covered with very nasty thorns. Luckily, the roots weren’t too deep, so Dan and I had it out and into the back of the car in no-time. I got nailed by a few thorns and as usual had to give blood to the cause.

When we got home I found that the hole I dug was just right, so I put some of the peat moss, good soil, some of the sandy soil, the tree in and watered the heck out of it. It looks great just where Rosalie said where to put it. She’s quite proud of herself because of her location planning. I bet she’s even telling her friends that she dug the hole as well.

First off, our internet problem has gone away as Starlink finally got us up and running again. I guess it was just a game of waiting. I’m disappointed with their support though. It was four days before I got any sort of a reply. Apparently, they had a large outage, so they would have been very busy.

It was the day that Martine came to do the cleaning. When she’s there we like to make ourselves scarce as she is a whirlwind and it’s not good to get in her way. A drive to Cihuatlán seemed like a good idea. We needed a new light for the kitchen. There wasn’t anything that would work, but then again, we didn’t look too hard as it was lunchtime and we were getting a bit peckish.

On the way home, our gas was getting low so I pulled in to get a fill-up—only our third since arriving. The attendant was polite and fun so he got a tip. Then I tried to start the car. Nothing!

I lifted the hood and saw that the battery terminals were very corroded. I cleaned them up with a bit of help from the attendant who got the hose and gave them a good wash. He also got a large adjustable wrench and used that as a hammer for a bit but still nothing. I shouldn’t have been surprised as I was scraping gunk off the terminal like peeling cheese. Obviously, the battery wasn’t getting charged.

It’s fortunate that there are some good friends here. One phone call and Jerry was on his way with his truck and some jumper cables. In the meantime, the attendant and another guy pushed us to a shady spot to wait. We were getting hungry but had some ‘yacca’ that we bought from the tianguis earlier so ate that to keep us going.

Jerry showed up after about fifteen minutes and our little old car was soon on the road again. Before we left the attendant got another tip for helping us out.

Back at the casa, I tried restarting the car and sure enough, it started just fine. I have to remember to check the terminals more often. Also, I understand that covering the terminals with Vaseline helps so I’ll do that.

After checking in with Martine and putting our stuff in the fridge we finally got our lunch at Resta-Rita by the lagoon.

The next day I cleaned the terminals and tried to start the car. Dead! Jerry came to my assistance again and I drove to ‘Cowboys Auto Repair’ where they installed a new battery. I also got the terminals changed as they were in bad shape. The total cost was $154 Canadian so not too bad and the car is running great again.

One morning I got into the shower, and after a while, I realized something was a little off as I wasn’t getting wet. Our water had run out. I checked everything I could but to no avail. I checked the ‘tinaco’, a huge tank on the roof, and it was empty. We called Castulo and he said he would be there in five minutes but showed up half an hour later.

Our water comes from a well and I haven’t quite figured out how it works yet. The water seems to be there for the house alright but I have to throw a switch to get water for the garden hoses. I don’t think I should get involved too much so I’ll leave that one alone. There was nothing Castulo could do, and as it was a Sunday, he couldn’t get the repair guy to come out. He told us that he would be here early the next morning, and would get someone to fill our tinaco that day, to hold us until the following day.

Our tinaco on the roof.

By the next morning neither the guy who was supposed to fill the tank, the repair guy, nor Castulo had shown up. We waited a while and then Rosalie called Castulo again and finally he and the repair guy arrived to do the job. This involved lots of back and forth in Spanish, borrowing some tools from me, and Castulo hopping on his motorbike and running uptown for supplies every few minutes. I also heard a bit of hammering and banging but didn’t dare look to see what was happening.

It’s a bit of a challenge living without water. It makes showering, laundry and flushing a little difficult. We have plenty of drinking water in 20-litre jugs so we got on fine. I used the jugs to fill the toilet tank and must have stirred up a lot of sand because when I flushed the bowl was full of the stuff.

That same morning we were expecting Eddie at eleven AM to hook up our IPTV. He didn’t show up either! It’s lucky that we have nothing better to do than sit around waiting for people. It was an Amazon delivery day so we had to stay in anyway. Not that we really expected them to show up on time, or at all, for that matter.

Finally, Castulo bought back the old noisy pump as the other one was being repaired. It gives us water and I only need to turn it on to water the garden. It’s been a week now so we are getting used to the new/old system.

StarLink update.

Our system stopped working five days ago so I sent a request for support to StarLink. They took their time answering and eventually answered that the WiFi was out in our area. I thought this was a bit strange but who knows?

Our problem is that we have a 30-day trial period and that is up in a few days. If we send the system back we have to pay for shipping. I have cancelled the contract so don’t have to pay for the service we aren’t using. However, when do we hook it up again? I hope they let us know when it’s ready again.

I often need something to do other than read and drink wine so I do a few odd jobs around the place; before drinking the wine, of course.

The washing machine wasn’t filling up very fast so I cleaned out the filters. It made a slight difference but not much. After I put it back together, the hoses were leaking all over the floor so I ran up to the town for some new washers. Saying ‘new washers’ suggests that there were old washers, but there were none. It fixed the problem though.

The light over the patio wouldn’t light so I put in a new bulb. It still didn’t light.. I pulled the fitting and the whole thing fell apart in my hand. Another trip to the hardware store for a replacement. It works now.

The stairs to the roof have cute sconce lights to illuminate the stairs. There is a switch at the top and bottom but only the top one works. I discovered that the lights ran off the main breaker which was located at the bottom of the yard.

The wall running down the side of the garden has lights and creates a really nice ambiance in the evening. However, just after we got here there was heavy rainfall and they haven’t worked since—another job for Sparky Wells. When I took the switches apart they were all corroded and I had to replace three of them. The one for the stairs works agin now but the garden lights are going to be more of a challenge.

I was waiting in the hardware store with the old switch plate so I could show them what I needed and realized that it was modular. You can take out the switch and either replace it with a new one or an outlet socket. And the plate takes up to three units. Very convenient.

The biggest problem is that all this stuff is outside without proper protection. Even the main breaker for the house is on an outside wall and exposed to the elements.

Rosalie thinks the light in the kitchen isn’t good enough and I have to agree with her, even though it means another job for me. I pulled the old one down to see what I was in for and found that it was a very low-energy LED setup. I now have to find one on Amazon or maybe uptown to replace it.

Me, after fixing all that stuff.

Our shade cloth on the roof is a bit of a challenge as it’s quite big (16′ X 20′)and tends to sag in the middle. I’ve ordered some clips to see if I can pull it a bit tighter to raise it up a bit more. Unfortunately, the delivery is caught up in Amazon neverland and I see that the expected delivery date is yesterday.

I put up all the wire mesh to keep the cats, dogs, small kids, goats and turkeys out. That worked out well. Now I wait until a cat comes in over the neighbour’s wall and I chase it. I want to see its expression when it hits the mesh. Boy! I’m evil.

We’re still waiting for the rest of our buds to come down and join us so in the meantime we try to connect with other people we know here.

Rosalie has taken to trying to stretch my brain by inviting a neighbour over who speaks no English at all. Her name is Fidelia. At first, we thought she was being nosy because she asked a lot of questions, but I think that the locals have a genuine interest in us and like to find out about us and our way of life. She speaks no English so it was a good learning experience for us.

A lot of Spanish verbs end with ‘arse’ (ars-a) Rosalie seems to think it’s funny and giggles whenever she has to use it. I tell her it was quite disgusting but I also make sure she doesn’t see me grinning.

The guy who runs one of the travel agencies here, Dan, has a sister, Charlie, who married a Mexican guy. They now live in La Manzanilla and run a deli. They have a new baby boy, nicknamed Nando, and while delivering some food to us brought Nando with her. Rosalie now has an adopted grandkid.

Walking through the tianguis (market) we were greeted by a lot of the vendors as old friends, which in a way I suppose we are. I was greeted by Jorge, the son of the guy I buy my T-shirts from. I couldn’t remember his dad’s name so I apologized and asked his dad again. It was Liborio! As soon as I asked I remembered it again. I think it goes a long way when you try to speak to the locals in Spanish even though many of them speak some English. Jorge does, but his dad doesn’t.

Jorge likes to collect the new twenty peso coins. I happened to get one so thought I could sell it to him for 50 pesos, but no, I had to let it go for face value. I was reluctant as it was nice and shiny.

Update on Amazon craziness. We were expecting a delivery on Thursday and another two on Tuesday. When the Thursday delivery came, one of the Tuesday ones came with it. Also, the other one expected on Tuesday is coming today with one expected on Monday. No idea when the one due at the end of the month will come, probably yesterday.

We got our rooftop shade cloth set up but learned the hard way about how plants survive here during the dry season. The first morning we went up to have our morning tea, we found all the cushions wet. The dew had soaked through the shade cloth. We can work around that and slide the cushions under a table for the night and cover our little TV with plastic. I just hope it doesn’t rain anytime soon.

Our ‘TV’ is actually a computer monitor that I use when doing our investments. I plugged in a Firestick and a Bluetooth speaker and it works just like a smart TV. Nice! Now we can watch Netflix on the ‘Big’ screen, but with the OTT app operational soon, can cancel Netflix, Prime video, Brit Box as well as others we won’t need anymore…we hope.

As you know I have been whining and complaining about the internet service down here. Well, a lot of people we know are signing up with Starlink.

It’s a bit pricy but well worth it. Our biggest question was whether we could suspend service while in Canada. Well, we can as there is no contract and we will own the equipment. We decided to bite the bullet and ordered it. It’s a bit cheaper here but still $575 CDN for the equipment and then $75 a month. The download speeds are up to 300 megabytes so it is pretty fast—also, very few interruptions even through bad storms apparently; not having experienced that ourselves yet.

They said delivery could take up to two weeks but John and Ronda got theirs in about three days. So we wait and see. We have nothing but the sky here so should get a good signal with no problem. I’m not sure how I’m going to run the wiring yet but I’ll figure that out when it gets here.

We asked Blanca about anchoring it to the wall. She said to drill all the holes we want as Mexicans don’t worry about things like that. That makes life a little easier.

Then we may look at an OTT+ service to provide live tv. They cost about $20 a month and provide about 8,000 channels from all over the world.

Update

Our Starlink receiver arrived after four days and was really easy to set up. Just use an app to find the best location, plug it in, turn it on, and wait for the dish to align itself. I had to do a rough run with the wiring as there was a game on and I had to watch it, although I shouldn’t have bothered. At first, the download speed was only 1o-20 MB. Even at that speed, we noticed how much better things were.

The following day I changed the location and got 75 mbps…much better. The download speed depends a lot on how much of the sky the dish can see. Ours covers about half and has a clear view of most of the sky. The dish will realign itself to find a better signal. Before we got the dish I had to reset my laptop every time I wanted to log on. Now, no problem.

I’ve moved the dish several times to get the best location. At the moment we are getting up to 170 mbps. I’m reluctant to move it again as this is a pretty fast speed. But we’ll see.

I’m a dog and I live in Melaque, Mexico.

Life here is pretty easy, I lay in the dirt most of the day, that is until one of those big auto whatsits comes by and tries to run me down. I just lay here in the shade or sometimes in the sun because I’m too lazy to move. I spend my time trying to bite fleas as that gives me some food to eat.

When it’s not too hot I get together with some of my amigos and we wander the neighbourhood looking for undefended garbage cans. We like to turn them over, not just for the fun of it, but because we may find a little food.

I’m mostly ignored by the people who own me. If the family has food I am the last on the list to get some. But somehow I get by.

Some of my friends have nice owners. They get taken care of and visit the vet for medicine to make them better. Some come back barking with a squeaky voice because they have some part lopped off which doesn’t sound like too much fun. They get fed well and some of the lady perros even get to wear little dresses.

The best time of the day for me is in the dark hours when humans are asleep. Then I can howl and bark all I want because they are too sleepy to try to shut me up. Sometimes, I howl because I stepped on a scorpion, that’s also not fun.

I hear that some humans like to “rescue” us and take us to Canada so we can have a better life. I also heard that they only keep us for a while, then get tired of us and put us with the SPCA where, after a while, because they can’t find enough homes for us, we get put down. I don’t know why that is, but it doesn’t seem like too much fun either.

I think I’ll take a pass if possible. I’ll keep myself clean and tidy so that the do-good people don’t pick me up and haul me off. Some of my friends have been adopted by Norteños and found nice homes but most of them end up dead.

It’s a fad to say “I have a rescue dog” but really it’s only making that person feel better about themselves for a while and we perros pay for it. Perhaps we need a union. I did finally take a chance and got adopted and am happy now.

Or is it there and here?

Amazon.ca

I noticed that we have been ordering a lot of stuff on Amazon lately. It was a bit of a worry at first until we realized that we would buy the same stuff if we were in town. We like to support local businesses but we are out of town a bit so getting it delivered is great and saves a lot of driving time and gas.

We have had a few instances where something comes by Canada Post but as we have no mailboxes here we may be lucky to get it. One item they sent to us last year was sent back so I re-ordered. It arrived okay but so did another one this year. If we do have to get it by Canada Post, I get it delivered to our mailbox in Nanaimo. So, from now on I only try to order if it’s prime delivery. That way I know it’s coming by courier and we’ll get it sooner.

I love shopping online. Not just Amazon but any other company that wants to sell me stuff. I ordered our heat pump online and had to pick it up in Nanaimo. It was very satisfying when I showed up and it was sitting outside on a palette. That was some order.

We try not to return too much stuff but once in a while we have to. Amazon has made it much easier now. Once you make the request online they have a courier pick it up the next day. You don’t even have to re-label the package. Awesome!

Amazon.com.mx

Amazon.com.mx is also a good way for us to get our stuff down here. We can’t always find what we want locally so buy online. I needed a new keyboard so ordered one. They have fairly fast delivery even though our prime account doesn’t work here. My keyboard arrived in about a week. We got a bit of a hassle from the delivery guy because we didn’t have a number on our casa, but I soon took care of that.

One item I ordered was delivered while we weren’t home. It seems that if you aren’t home they don’t leave it but mark it as delivered anyway. I contacted Amazon and they said to give it a day or two. Sure enough, it turned up so we ordered a lot more stuff. I keep track of the delivery dates now so we can stay home that day.

Like our last location, we have a lot of critters to put up with. No, I don’t mean the tourists… or do I?

The first thing we noticed was that a cat had been sleeping on our outside cushions during the night. Not only that but he had the nerve to jump up on the wall and casually wander through the patio while we were sitting there. By the time I grabbed my water sprayer with vinegar in it he was gone. I did get some revenge though, I put up a grill from the BBQ where we saw it jump up. Early one morning I heard a crash and suspected that the cat had met the grill. I got a smile out of that.

Again, sitting and minding our own business when I happened to look up and see that some dogs had gotten into our tall garbage can. How they got in there I don’t know; it wasn’t even turned over. A few badly thrown rocks later and they wander off with a look of contempt. I’m sure they will be back.

It’s not so bad if the local gang of turkeys wander in as… well, you know, Christmas. We also get the odd chicken or two but we mostly ignore them.

The wander inners are the biggest problem so I ordered some wire mesh to put up to keep them out. It won’t be delivered for a week or two so I’ll have to just cuss until then.

We are planning to develop the roof so we ordered a large shade cloth and some bits and bobs to put it up with. It’s rectangular but we only have three anchor points. There is a large umbrella with a heavy concrete base, so after discussions with Blanca, it was decided to use that as the fourth anchor point.

I had to move the thing so gathering all my puny muscles together, I gave it a mighty heave and a scorpion ran out from underneath. I dropped the heavy base but unfortunately for the scorpion, it chose that second to run back underneath. It left a tiny baby behind about 1/4″ long so I got Rosalie to dispatch that as I didn’t have any shoes on.

Getting up one morning I went into the bathroom and saw a small cockroach. I went and got my awesome roach-killing spray bomb and taught it a lesson it won’t forget, mostly because it’s dead. I looked in the shower and there was a spider. I grabbed the bath mat and thought I was in for a swift kill. Boy was I wrong! The thing took off like Donald Trump going to a republican rally. It even went straight up the tiled wall. I happened to have the spray bomb still handy so gave it a squirt and hoped that I killed it.

One night, I woke up as something fell on my face. I batted it off hoping it wasn’t a spider. Things started to settle down again when I felt something touch my arm. I lept out of bed and found my flashlight. I didn’t want to wake Rosalie by turning on the overhead light. It took a while but I finally tracked the beast down. It was a bug about the size of a pea. I evicted it from the bed and went back to sleep.

If this wasn’t enough, some sort of wasp was starting to make a nest right above where we sit outside. A can of Raid and a broom soon took care of that.

We had a few ants when we first got here but after a few drops of Ant B-Gone, they went.

We have sprayed enough toxic chemicals around this place to warrant a Hazmat team. I don’t think it’s worth bothering about though: this is Mexico after all.